Taliesin and Vixen
Taliesin- Tiefling Cleric of Myrkul. Vixen- Beastmaster Ranger. When you think of Waterdeep, you normally think of the beautiful city where the nobles and their riches reside. That’s Seaward your thinking about. But our story starts in a much different setting. Even though it is still Waterdeep, we come from the northern parts of the Docks Yard. There, there’s no nobles and riches, only the poor and those who have to sell to get the funds to get out of this shit hole. ----Cut Scene---- “Hey sis. What’s with the last part? You’re supposed to make them like us.” Taliesin says. I responded and say, “I don’t care. We’re not nice people.” “Fine whatever.” Sin says and lets me continue. As I was saying, the people here are poor and have to sell to survive. “There happy.” I say to Taliesin. “Yes.” I rolled my eyes and continued. “Hey don’t forget to feed my goldfish.” Xanathar says as he floats into the room. “Hey get out of this monologue, you don’t pay us to include you.” Sin yells at him. “Do you know my kind breed asexually?” He states with a smirk. Sin palms his face and says back, “OH MY GOD! Yes we get it. You tell us this all the time. You’re creepy. Go away!!!!” Xan rolls his eyes and leaves the room. As I was saying before we got rudely interrupted by “an asexual creepy flying doochnozzle” Sin interrupts. I laugh and continue on. ---Cut Scene--- So as I was saying, we weren’t born into riches. In fact our parents were one of those sellers. They were actually sellers of weapons. Dad would make the weapons and mom would sell them in their shop. And they hoped that one day we would take over the family business. But sadly that was a bit hard to do when Sin loved to hang around cemeteries and I loved to have shiny things, which I may or may not gotten legally. That actually is how our story will truly begin. I was walking around the stalls in the marketplace, just on the border of the Castle Ward, and I saw a very beautiful diamond. I really wanted it. So what do you think I did, I took it of course. And even though, I was somewhat skilled at the time, I was still spotted. So once I had the diamond, I headed over to the cemetery to show Sin. “Hey, look bro. Look what I got.” Sin poked his head out of the open grave and looked like he got busted. But when he realized it was me, he rolled his eyes and said, “What you want hell hussy?” I showed him the diamond and he proceeded to hold up a skeleton. “Look a whole one still together.” But after a moment it broke and collapsed in the grave. Then all that he was left holding was the head. “Well it was whole.” Sin shrugged and climbed out. Then tossed the skull back in the grave. Then suddenly there was a noise from behind me. “Well well well. Look what we have here. A little thief and her bastard brother.” “Oh god, what did you do now?” Sin looked at my hand and then looked at me and sighs. “Did you have to lead him here?” I looked worried and said, “Run!” And that’s what we did. After a bit of running, we had lost the guy. And we had decided to hide till night, so we could sneak home. After a few hours, it was night and we sneakily headed back home thinking the danger was behind us. But when we arrived, something seemed off. Our front door was slightly opened and we knew our parents never did that. When we opened our door fully, all we saw was blood all over the floor. When we went into the house further, we had seen the bodies of our parents. We ran over to them. Sin was just mad and I was crying profusely. While I was crying Sin looked around spotted the attacker. Instantly he grabbed dad’s weapon and got ready for an attack. All this commotion had let me know that something was about to happen, cause in that moment, the attacker jumped up and tried grabbing me. But Sin, was faster. He took the sword and ran the man through. If he wasn’t dead before he was now. So once everything died down, we both went through the house and grabbed the thing we wanted to keep. Now of course since I loved shiny things, and that basically all I owned, Sin had to go behind me to make sure I only took what was needed. When all the packing was done, we headed out to find a new home. But we didn’t intend to find it where we did. ---Cut Scene--- “Hey did you get to my part yet?” Xan interrupted. “No! For the love of Myrkul. Piss off. We are almost there. Go feed your goldfish.” Sin yelled. I just laughed and continued on. ---Cut Scene--- After walking for what seemed like days we made it to the southern part of the Dock Ward. And the weirdest encounter happened there. But I’ll get to that soon. When we first arrived we had to figure out where we were going to sleep and eat. We managed to find a free spot in the street and that where we stayed for a few days. As the days went by I had gone out to use my thief talents to score us some merchandise. But I didn’t realize that this decision would then change our lives forever. As I scoped out the places I could steal from, I came across this merchant shop/house. Well, at least that’s what it looked like. After few minutes of checking to see if someone was home, I had snuck inside and looked through the stuff that was there. All the while, I thought that most of this stuff couldn’t be real. When I had seen this cool looking thing, I went to grab it. ----Cut Scene---- “You know he never did tell me what it was that I grabbed. Now I want to know.” Sin rolled his eyes, “The story.” “Right.” ----Cut Scene---- When I picked it up, there came a noise behind me. I froze and just stood there thinking I was about to die. There a total silence and I thought maybe they left. But then I heard someone clear their voice. I knew I wouldn’t be able to run so I turned around and accepted my fate. “Well, aren’t you a cocky little bitch. Do you know who I am? Better yet do you know what I am?” The creature asked me. “Uuuummm. No are you important?” I asked He laughed and shook his head. “You know what, I like you. I’m going to make you my slave.” I was confused at the time and only thought, ‘Hey a house to live in and someone to feed us.’ And in all my infinite wisdom I said, “Hey, can my brother come too?” The creature smirked and said, “Sure. Why don’t you go and get him.” I nodded and ran out the door towards our spot. When I didn’t find him, I headed towards, The City of the Dead. I knew Sin loved hanging around there so I knew I would find him. When I had arrived I saw him talking to the caretaker that worked there. When Sin noticed me, he headed over so we could walk home. “So I found us a place to stay.” I told him. He looked at me suspiciously. “What?! Really?! Where?” Sin asked. “Come on I’ll show you.” As I lead him back to the Dock Ward, I lead him near the border of the Trade Ward. When I walked into the shop, I called out for the creature. “Now Sin, don’t freak out. He may look weird but he is giving us a place to stay. So be nice.” After a few minutes the creature showed up and he froze up. The creature laughed noticing that Sin knew what he was. Sin was internally freaking out. And he couldn’t keep it inside anymore. He turned to me and just let it all lose. “The fuck is wrong with you?! What did you fucking do?! What did fucking steal this time?!” The creature said, “Huh. you nailed it. Does she does this often?” “You have no idea! We are here because she stole something. She does it a lot and can’t seem to stop even though it gets us in trouble. Which makes me guess that I’m here now because she had suggested it.” The creature laughed some more and said, “Nailed it again. I like you too.” Sin was unsure how to respond so he said, “Um Thanks.” After that he turns to me and said, “I hate you right now. With all of my hate. Why am I here?!” The creature smiles and says, “Let me introduce myself, my name is Xanathar. And for you, who doesn’t know, I am a beholder. I have taken you in because I need someone on the outside to learn things for me. I will train you and then set you out on the world. You have no choice in the matter. Welcome to your new home.” And with that said Xan turned around and went back to his studies. As the years went by, we studied and learned all we could. Sin, started to study under the caretaker of the cemetery, a human by the name of Zevarn Atlan, in order to become a Grave Cleric of Myrkul. He was good at it, especially since he loved the dead more than the living. I on the other had learned all I could on how to survive. I didn’t want to be burden any more than necessary to my brother, so I become a Ranger. After a few years, when I was learning how to be a better thief, Xan sent me to steal from Davra Jassur. She was known for being a Zhentarim “troubleshooter”. Which I paid no mind to, since I was determined to prove myself. Since I knew my brother would not let me go alone, I made sure to leave when he was out training with Zevarn so he wouldn’t stop me. The journey itself was uneventful which I was happy for. And when I arrived at her shop, I acted like I was interested in buying. But I could tell she was watching me closely like she knew I was going to do something. I tried to make it look convincing. It was easy since my dad forged weapons for a living. After about 5 or so minutes, she walked in the back and I took my chance. I picked a small dagger. I knew it had to be something I could easily hide so I wouldn’t get caught. And as I headed out the door I felt some excitement that I finally had done something right. “So who sent you?” Davra asked as I made it just outside the door. “Damn it.” I whispered. I turned to her and said, “If you knew I was going to take something, why let me?” “You know what, I see myself in you. You got talent kid. It just needs a bit of some refinement.” Davra paused and thought for a moment. “You know what, I’m going to make it make it official. I’m going to train you to join the Black Network. Welcome to the club, kid.” I was confused at first. Davra noticed this and invited me in so we could talk. ----Cut Scene---- “Ok you tell your side of the story for this part.” I said to Sin. “Ugh so much work.” He said to me ----Cut Scene---- So as sis was saying, she left for the job given to her and I was actually trying to talk to her when she left. Knowing her, she wasn’t going to tell me so what else could I do but follow her like the annoyed dutiful brother I was. Since I followed her all the way there, which I was unsurprised that she never noticed me, I stayed at a distance and just watched her do her thing. I overheard what Davra said to her and saw them go back inside to talk. “So what do you think kid? Want to join?” Davra said. “Well I don’t know. This a big decision to make. I have to think about it?” Vixen said “I hate to break it to you kid but sadly I can’t let you leave now that I know that you know about me.” Davra said to her. ----Cut Scene---- “See this is what happens when you don’t tell me stuff you stupid hell hussy!” I say. “You always do things that get yourself and I in trouble and I always have to go save you.” I give myself a face palm, “You’re going to be the death of me.” As he says this all Vixen thinks about it for a moment. She then thinks, ‘he doesn’t realize is that what’s worried me the most. It was why I had to prove I could do it. I didn’t want to be the cause of anymore death in my family. And I even worry about it to this day.’ ----Cut Scene---- It was at that moment that I decided to intervene, “So of course I find my sister, again, in a situation she can’t get out of.” I said with an annoyed tone. “Who the hell are you?” Davra yelled. “I am this idiot’s brother. And since she seemed to fail her objective, unsurprisingly, I am here to retrieve her.” I glared daggers at her and all she did was pout. “Well I hate to say this again but I can’t let you leave alive since you know as well. But good news is that if you join us, all the death can be moderately avoided.” Davra said. “Well I don’t know if Myrkul would like that, but since I once again have my choices made for me,” I still glare at sis then I look at Davra and said, “That depends on what this entails. I don’t think our employer would let us continue without him knowing.” Davra pauses and thinks for a moment, “Alright lets go talk to your boss.” “Fine. Be warned. He might talk to you about his stupid goldfish and how he breeds asexually. Just go with it or ignore it. Mind your manners and don’t stare to long.” I told her this with a straight face while sis was trying not to laugh. “What?!” Davra looks so confused and looks to sis for answers. “Don’t worry you’ll understand when you get there.” Sis says to Davra As Sis walks towards, Davra is dumbstruck but follows us out the door anyway. And do we started the trek home. ----Cut Scene---- “Hey Sin, do you want me to finish the story?” I asked him. “I don’t care. This is just getting crazy now. Do whatever.” He says back “Ok then.” I said. ----Cut Scene---- So a few days go by and we finally make it home. “Hey Xan, we have someone here who wants to hire us and she wants to negotiate terms.” I say while trying not to laugh. About a minute goes by and Xan floats in. Davra freezes and draws her weapon. “What the hell guys are you trying to kill us.” She yelled. I turned to her and started laughing louder not being to contain it anymore, “Chill out Davra. This is our boss. I doubt you’ve not seen weirder.” “The fuck guys. You work for a beholder?!” Davra shouts “Don’t take it personal. Sis has been doing this to me my whole life. That’s actually something I should warn you about before you hire us.” Sin said. “Hey I am not that bad.” I paused and Sin looked at me. “Ok I am that bad.” Xan rolls his main eye as he is used to our bickering by now. “Now what is these terms you wanted to talk about?” he asked when he looked at Davra. “Um. Yea. So I told them I recruit for the Black Network and since they know about it they have to join.” Davra said with an attitude and when she remembered what she was talking to, she paused, swallows loudly, and then adds, “If you’ll let them, that is.” “Well I don’t see why not. The Black Network is something I have been wanted to investigate for my journals to expand my knowledge even further.” Xan said to her. “Just make sure that they return to me in one piece and alive or I take your life in their place” He gives her a deadly look. “Right ill make sure they are returned to you alive and in one piece.” Davra said nervously. “But so you know, their training must come first so they have to stay with me for a while.” “Very well.” Xan says. And with that, Sin and I left to go train, again. The training took me about 2 years. But for Sin it only took 1. He went home to finish his Grave Cleric training and I stayed to finish mine. When the second year was up, I felt I was no longer going to be problem for Sin anymore. I was happy to be going home again. With Davra’s training Sin and I, had decided to open our own weapons business. As the years continued on, our business became popular. And when we realized how much money we were making, Sin and I decided to take a portion of our earnings and our valuable family possessions and bury them where only we could find it. Then, we had asked if we could sell in the Underdark. Xan agreed wanting to have some knowledge from there as well and told us to keep in touch and to send him letters with all that we learned. When we arrived there, we had sent a letter back before we went down. As about a week went by, we had managed to start a small store. I was asked about making a weapons trade and I told Sin about it. It was good money so he didn’t question it. Long story short, that meeting was the shittiest thing that has ever happened to us. And this is where the real fun begins.